Target antigens for prostate cancer immunotherapy

The detection and treatment of prostate cancer has been markedly improved b y the use of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) as a serological biomarker for disease. However, even after surgical intervention and hormone ablation th erapy, a significant proportion of patients progress to advanced metastatic disease, for which there is no cure. An important goal has become the iden tification of antigens in advanced stage prostate cancer that represent tar gets for therapy. Recently, great progress has been made to utilize immunol ogical therapies to treat cancer. Monoclonal antibody therapy has been succ essfully approved for the treatment of breast cancer and B-cell lymphoma, a nd multiple clinical trails are currently in progress in a variety of cance rs, including prostate cancer. Pre-clinical and clinical studies are also u nderway to evaluate cancer vaccine approaches directed against antigens tha t are highly expressed in prostate and other cancers. This article describe s several target antigens expressed in prostate cancer and immunological ap proaches directed against them that may be effective for treating prostate cancer patients.